Top Codex JRPGs list

[Invictus]

try to keep things civil

Sure, why not?

Phantasy Star 2

Saying Phantasy Star 2 is the best in the series when Phantasy Star 1 exists, is like saying Ultima 5 is best when Ultima 4 exists and was the true groundbreaking. Tl;dr: it doesn't make sense at all.

Ultima V IS a better game than IV; IV might be a more groundbreaking and influential but arguably V is the better game and maybe the best Ultima

Is there a credible case for putting Phantasy Star II over Phantasy Star IV other than groundbreakingness? At least in my recollection, PSIV was better in every respect except, arguably, the openness of the world. (My memory may be faulty, but I remember PSII let you wander around more and build your party more to your liking.)

Just personal preference

 

[glass blackbird]

The dungeons in PS2 are all tedious and enormous because they were drawn up by a new hire who didn't know what he was doing, and the director didn't want to cut his credited work from the game and hurt the guy's career

 

[Invictus]

So here are the results for the top 10 (well 11 because of a tie)
1) Chrono Trigger
2) Final Fantasy 6
3) Dark Souls
4) Shin Tensei Megami Nocturne
5) Final Fantasy Tactics
6) Valkyria Chronicles
7) Tactics Ogre
8) Trails in the Sky
9) Suikoden 2
10) Final Fantasy 12
11) Demon Souls

After that we got a 5 way tie with
Vagrant Story
Phantasy Star 4
Dragon Quest 7
Dragon Quest 8
Dragons Dogma

Overall the series that got more votes were not surprisingly Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest, but series like Suikoden, Elminage and Shining Force also got some love

So for all the haters if you want to remove the Souls games “ because they are not classic turn based JRPG” or whatever the final list is still pretty much a “ Who’s who” of the classic japanese RPGs that pretty much defined the genre

Not surprisingly other than more recent franchises like Trails in the Skies and Valkyria Chronicles series, the traditional style is pretty much on the decline since the 2000s plus the odd gem like Octopath Traveler or the most recent Dragon Quest game

So there it is guys, comment away

 

[cosmicray]

Resonance of Fate

Fuuuuuck. How could I forget this gem? Dammit...

Also, as if it wasn't already evident, I really should play FF6 and CT.

 

[aweigh]

bruh u haven't played ff6 or ct? u should

 

[cosmicray]

I will.

 

[mushaden]

Pretty good list if you exclude the souls games

wish we could get half the number of people who voted in the top regular RPG thread

 

[Nifft Batuff]

Random order:

SMT: Nocturne
SMT IV Apocalypse
SMT: Strange Journey
Persona 2 (duology)
Breath of Fire IV
Vagrant Story
Nier: Automata
Shadow Hearts - Covenant
SMT: Digital Devil Saga
Xenogears

 

[mushaden]

I tabulated this list... taking out souls, dragons dogma, and bloodborne. I guess I had some counting discrepencies with Invictus (I'm sure I fucked up a few times counting beans)

13 Votes
Chrono Trigger

12 Votes
Final Fantasy 6

11 Votes
Final Fantasy Tactics
Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne

10 Votes
Final Fantasy 12

9 Votes
Suikoden 2

8 Votes
Final Fantasy 9

7 Votes
Persona 4
Tactics Ogre
Vagrant Story
Valkyria Chronicles

6 Votes
Dragon Quest 7
Final Fantasy 7
Phantasy Star 4
Shining Force 2
Trails in The Sky (First Chapter? where people wrote SC I differentiated)

5 Votes
Anachronox
Earthbound
Elminage Gothic
Lufia 2
Nier: Automata
Skies of Arcadia
Suikoden
The Dark Spire

It's kind of a cool tiered list, I think.

 

[Cat Dude]

Demons' Souls
Dark Souls
Bloodborne
Dark Souls 3

None of which are jrpgs. They are simply action rpg games. If we assume that Dark Souls is an jrpg game then its western clones like Lords of the Fallen and The Surge should fit the same category, and that would be fucking stupid.

Jrpg label does not simply stand for "rpg games made in Japan". Instead, it is a subgenre of rpg games that originated in Japan and is defined by these principles:

- big focus on narrative
- predominating linearity
- no/ limited character creation
- no/ limited character development

Based on that, not only souls-like games including king's field series are not defined as jrpg, but in fact, most SMT games and their derivatives should not be confused with them as well. And yes, you can have western jrpg games.
For fuck's sake, why is it all so hard to understand?

For some people Septerra Core, Sudeki and Anachronox are considered wrpg because they were made in the west. It is stupid really. Come on this is rpgcodex I thought forumers here know better than youtube commenters.

 

[Nutmeg]

Kinda lame people were voting for FFT and TO (broken non-games) but not FE or any of the Dept. Heaven games.

 

[Snorkack]

So here are the results for the top 10 (well 11 because of a tie)
1) Chrono Trigger
2) Final Fantasy 6
3) Dark Souls
4) Shin Tensei Megami Nocturne
5) Final Fantasy Tactics
6) Valkyria Chronicles
7) Tactics Ogre
8) Trails in the Sky
9) Suikoden 2
10) Final Fantasy 12
11) Demon Souls

Currently I'm in that rare JRPG mood and after reading this thread I tried out Trails In The Sky which happens to have been sitting in my Steam library untouched for years...

So this is the 8th best JRPG codex comes up with?!

It's simplistic, braindead easy, it doesn't value my time, the story is boring, the orbment system suggests complexity where there is none... no thanks.

I mean, I should have been cautious with that list anyways, since at least one game is absolutely overrated thanks to nostalgia (Chrono Trigger), one game is the synthesis of the worst elements of MMOs and JRPGs (FF12) and two games aren't even JRPGs to begin with.
For some reason I also have Valkyria Chronicles and haven't played it so far. Think I'll keep it that way for now, and I just stick with the cRPG parts of this forum.

 

[Jason Liang]

Think I'll keep it that way for now, and I just stick with the cRPG parts of this forum.

Or you could have tried one of the 10 jrpgs that I recommended:\

 

[mushaden]

Snorkack, I completely agree about Trails in the Sky. Never played FF 12. But Chrono Trigger overrated?? What JRPGs have you enjoyed? Add to the list

 

[Snorkack]

Think I'll keep it that way for now, and I just stick with the cRPG parts of this forum.

Or you could have tried one of the 10 jrpgs that I recommended:\

Stopped reading your list at FF8.

Snorkack, I completely agree about Trails in the Sky. Never played FF 12. But Chrono Trigger overrated?? What JRPGs have you enjoyed? Add to the list

As a yuro, I didn't play Chrono Trigger until emus and roms were a common thing, so when I first played it, I was already >20 - so no nostalgia goggles. It's an okay game, but definitely not the second coming of christ everyone claims it is.

I pretty much only played JRPGs on SNES and PS2, then I got a PC and left them behind for good, so my list is rather limited:

(No particular order)
Lufia 2
Terranigma
Dark Chronicle
Disgaea
CrossCode
Stardew Valley

Honourable mentions, although If I played them now, I would probably be disappointed:
Secret of Evermore
Final Fantasy 10
Shining Force
Tales of Phantasia

Overrated shit:
Secret of Mana (I have fond memories playing it as a child with friends... as a fairy tale it is amazing. But as a game it's deeply flawed)
Dragon Quest 8

Left out the hentai Wizardry clones and action rpgs like the souls games.

Oh, and there was this one PS2 jrpg where you had to spin the wheel to get attack boni. It was pretty dark and mature. You were frequently on some sort of graveyard and had to physically fight your inner demons. Can't for the love of god remember its name... but I'm sure it belongs to the best-of list, too.

 

[yellowcake]

Oh, and there was this one PS2 jrpg where you had to spin the wheel to get attack boni. It was pretty dark and mature. You were frequently on some sort of graveyard and had to physically fight your inner demons. Can't for the love of god remember its name... but I'm sure it belongs to the best-of list, too.

Shadow Hearts? I once googled "best games for PS2" and it was mentioned in comments to a generic article.

 

[Snorkack]

Fuck me, that's it, thanks! And there are even two successors. Guess that's what I'm gonna be playing to satiate my current jrpg appetite.

 

[CryptRat]

Don't forget to play Koudelka on PSX, it's the true first game of the Shadow Hearts series.

 

[Snorkack]

Maybe this thread was useful after all <3

 

[mushaden]

Added Lufia 2. I will edit the list again if anybody else wants to post.

 

[Sigourn]

Don't forget to play Koudelka on PSX, it's the true first game of the Shadow Hearts series.

Yeah, but it's pretty bad. With a genuine survival horror twist it would have put Resident Evil to shame, at least when it came to aesthetic, setting and voice acting quality. As an RPG? It's pretty shitty.

 

[80Maxwell08]

Don't forget to play Koudelka on PSX, it's the true first game of the Shadow Hearts series.

Yeah, but it's pretty bad. With a genuine survival horror twist it would have put Resident Evil to shame, at least when it came to aesthetic, setting and voice acting quality. As an RPG? It's pretty shitty.

I'm a week late but I just wanted to chime in on this. Koudelka's dev team came from square and was headed by a composer who wanted to move up from his role and make an rpg different from the rpgs he worked on. The original idea the creative lead had was an horror action rpg more akin to the parasite eve games. The other parts of the development team wanted to make a turn based game more akin to the games they made back at square. The rest of the team ultimately won out but they already had all the animations from motion capture since the plan was to use them for cutscenes and gameplay, which resulted in a turn based game with the slow methodical animations from a survival horror game. The motion capture did result in amazing cutscenes for the time and the game's music came out great too but the price of the motion capture along with the file size of those meant the game couldn't be too big or long anyway, the same thing that happened with metal gear solid.

So the end result is a game with phenomenal atmosphere, music and dialogue but unbalanced gameplay that takes way too long for a campaign that's far shorter than other rpgs at the time.

I remembered most of this off the top of my head but the wikipedia article on the game has a lot of cited sources on it too so i'll just link that in case anyone is curious.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Koudelka#Development

 

[mogwaimon]

Shadow Hearts is a fucking amazing game and should have been on the list of best JRPGs, definitely. Covenant is the best of the series, while New World is supposedly skippable. I haven't gotten around to playing New World yet partly because of the poor reputation so I can't express a more personal opinion on it. Anyways, the series ticks all the right boxes for me, brooding atmosphere, wacky and memorable characters, reinterpretation of actual world history, superb villains in Albert Simon and

Spoiler

Rasputin

, an interactive combat system that isn't just picking choices from a menu....great stuff.

...looking over the list I'm surprised that stuff like Xenogears and Star Ocean Second Story didn't get any votes. Xenogears disc 1 is well worth the price of admission despite the obviously flawed disc 2, and SO2 had pretty great spritework, C&C with party members, a crafting system with an insane amount of depth and the charming, experimental roughness that only 90s RPGs had...the combat is nothing special, admittedly, but it's still one of my personal favorites.

 

[Tramboi]

Liked New World myself, whimsical and all.

 

[Deflowerer]

Currently I'm in that rare JRPG mood and after reading this thread I tried out Trails In The Sky which happens to have been sitting in my Steam library untouched for years...

So this is the 8th best JRPG codex comes up with?!

It's simplistic, braindead easy, it doesn't value my time, the story is boring, the orbment system suggests complexity where there is none... no thanks.

I mean, I should have been cautious with that list anyways, since at least one game is absolutely overrated thanks to nostalgia (Chrono Trigger), one game is the synthesis of the worst elements of MMOs and JRPGs (FF12) and two games aren't even JRPGs to begin with.
For some reason I also have Valkyria Chronicles and haven't played it so far. Think I'll keep it that way for now, and I just stick with the cRPG parts of this forum.

I played on Nightmare and can't really say that's true. Furthermore, the status ailment attacks which tend to be useless in JRPGs were very practical for the tougher fights.

But true that if you can't get into the world or the characters, the gameplay won't compensate.

 

[e-mailio estevez]

Liked New World myself, whimsical and all.

I never tried Koudelka, but the rest of the Shadow Hearts games I've found absolutely hilarious and one of the big reasons I give it top marks. New World is no exception- it generates a lot of hate and I'd say it ranks a little lower then Covenant in my books but it's still a great time and improves on a lot of things, notably the already-great combat system and combo mechanics.

There are so few games that genuinely get an intentional laugh out of me, Shadow Hearts did it consistently and I wish I knew of more good 'ol funny games.